. The sportsman's British bird book . th-western India in the neighbourhood of Karachi. Although a commonsummer-visitor to the British Islands, the species has long since desertedits old breeding-haunts in the Scilly Islands, but still nests abundantlyon the Fame Islands, as well as in several other localities on the coastsof England and Scotland and likewise in the Orkneys. In Englandit breeds in the greatest numbers at Ravenglass, on the coast of N 178 GULL GROUP Cumberland, where it ussociatcs with tlie common tern and the black-headed gull. An account of this i^ullery will be found in theZ
. The sportsman's British bird book . th-western India in the neighbourhood of Karachi. Although a commonsummer-visitor to the British Islands, the species has long since desertedits old breeding-haunts in the Scilly Islands, but still nests abundantlyon the Fame Islands, as well as in several other localities on the coastsof England and Scotland and likewise in the Orkneys. In Englandit breeds in the greatest numbers at Ravenglass, on the coast of N 178 GULL GROUP Cumberland, where it ussociatcs with tlie common tern and the black-headed gull. An account of this i^ullery will be found in theZoologist for May 1908. In Ireland its chief haunts are on the westcoast in the neii,^hbourhood of Killala Bay, Mayo, where it breeds inconsiderable numbers on a low flat mud-bank near the lake, scarcelyraised above the water-level. Here nesting takes place in May ; the nests themselves being meredepressions in the ground, thinly lined with stalks of grass. The ternsalso nest on a bare spot on a neighbouring island, and as many as one. SOOTV hundred and fifty nests have been counted in a single season in thedistrict. Before incubation has commenced the birds are in the habitof flying above the breeding-place at such a height in the air as to bealmost out of sight, screaming and chasing one another in their wildflight. In the Fame Islands they nest on a sloping .sand-bank leadingto the high ground, and in such numbers that, on an average, everysquare yard of sand may contain a nest: owing to the more northernposition of these islands incubation docs not take place till well on inJune. In Mayo the ordinary number of eggs in a nest is said to bethree, whereas in the Fame Islands there is more generally only a pair ;a difference attributable, perhaps, likewise, to the dificrence in latitudeof the two localities. The eggs, which are very marked, LITTLE TERN 179 and measure trom a little less to rather more than 2 inches in length,vary to a remarkable extent both in
Size: 1813px × 1378px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorlydekkerrichard184919, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900
